Hot Take Escaping Windows: The Ultimate Guide to Migrate to Linux

[Miravi]

Could you explain what made you return to Fedora? You guessed right, I have not tried Silverblue, but I am drawn to it because of the many positive and even raving reviews about it. So I am curious about your experience and verdict (since you have much more Linux mileage experience than me).

Fedora is most likely the distro I'll keep returning to. It's a comfortable sweet spot: cutting-edge but still reliable and professional.

The rolling package updates make it effortless to have my software the way I like it, totally new. It always preseves a vanilla experience for whichever desktop environment you choose—no heavy-handed branding or separating itself from upstream development. It's one of the first distros to implement SELinux with targeted policies out of the box, so you get security by default.

The one and only Linus Torvalds uses Fedora Workstation for hardware support, convenience, and consistency. He says it just works for him—installing and using it is straightforward.

Other well-known Fedora users include Greg Kroah-Hartman (lead maintainer of the stable Linux kernel branch), Chris Beard (former Mozilla CEO), Red Hat engineers, and the SELinux team (developers behind critical Linux security layers).

 

[LinuxFan58]

Fedora is most likely the distro I'll keep returning to. It's a comfortable sweet spot: cutting-edge but still reliable and professional.

Okay thanks convincing answer, so I will be better of moving to Fedora with KDE plasma desktop achieving two security improvements over my current Linux Mint Xfce (Wayland and out of the box working SELinux policies).

 

[simmerskool]

Could you explain what made you return to Fedora? You guessed right, I have not tried Silverblue, but I am drawn to it because of the many positive and even raving reviews about it. So I am curious about your experience and verdict (since you have much more Linux mileage experience than me).

off the top of my head (it was a year+ ago) number 1 recollection, Silverblue does update, perhaps not as often as fedora, but when Silverblue does update it seemed to take 3 times longer (maybe 5 times longer) then updating fedora. it got tedious for me. I don't mind updating fedora everyday from either terminal or its software GUI -- fast & clean.

 

[simmerskool]

How cool. Even though I sometimes try out different Linux distros—even if I like one or the other—in the end, I always end up going back to Linux Mint. And the funny thing is, a lot of people say the same thing I do I don’t know why, but Linux Mint has a special place in my heart. I guess it’s because of how smooth Mint runs—it uses few resources,

@piquiteco which DE did you use with Mint? I ran mint a few years ago, and the version I used I ended up not liking, don't recall why, but interested in trying again...

 

[acyclovir]

Just out of curiosity, @acyclovir, I would like to know if you have tried COSMIC desktop on Pop!_OS and, if so, how you found it.

Hi! Yep, I've tried it, but found it pretty buggy; missing icons, glitches when opening or minimizing apps, etc. I ditched Pop!_OS for Arch, Endeavour, and Fedora on three different devices.

 

[lokamoka820]

Hi! Yep, I've tried it, but found it pretty buggy; missing icons, glitches when opening or minimizing apps, etc. I ditched Pop!_OS for Arch, Endeavour, and Fedora on three different devices.

Yes, after asking you, I gave it a try and discovered that it still needed some work. I discovered TUXEDO OS, a better distro for home user that has the same features (NVIDIA proprietary drive preinstalled, semi-rolling approach).

 

[acyclovir]

Yes, after asking you, I gave it a try and discovered that it still needed some work. I discovered TUXEDO OS, a better distro for home user that has the same features (NVIDIA proprietary drive preinstalled, semi-rolling approach).

Out of the 3 distros I have installed, Fedora Desktop has been my favorite. Once you get Nvidia drivers installed and configured, there's no looking back. I gave GNOME a shot and I’m absolutely loving it. I will give a try to Tuxedo, thaks

 

[piquiteco]

@piquiteco which DE did you use with Mint? I ran mint a few years ago, and the version I used I ended up not liking, don't recall why, but interested in trying again...

Mint Cinnamon

 

[simmerskool]

Mint Cinnamon

thanks!

 

[lokamoka820]

I believe that no other distribution can provide the user with system information without requiring the use of the terminal, as Linux Mint does. For instance, the "error report" feature is one of the reasons why I believe that all users adore Mint and return to it when they are weary of the complexity of other distributions.

 

[Miravi]

I believe that no other distribution can provide the user with system information without requiring the use of the terminal, as Linux Mint does. For instance, the "error report" feature is one of the reasons why I believe that all users adore Mint and return to it when they are weary of the complexity of other distributions.

GNOME on Fedora has a UI for thoroughly reviewing logs, errors, crashes, etc. Is this what you mean?

It's likely that someone will touch the terminal at some point, but case in point: doesn't a Windows user who follows troubleshooting advice online end up running commands they don't totally grasp? Windows may try to simplify many things, but being an effective Windows user really isn't that simple when you think about it.

 

[lokamoka820]

GNOME on Fedora has a UI for thoroughly reviewing logs, errors, crashes, etc. Is this what you mean?

Indeed, but in Linux Mint, a notification will appear on the taskbar to remind the user to check for critical issues. Perhaps Gnome and KDE Plasma are doing the same thing, as they are evolving so quickly that I am unable to keep up with the latest developments.

 

[simmerskool]

Hi! Yep, I've tried it, but found it pretty buggy; missing icons, glitches when opening or minimizing apps, etc. I ditched Pop!_OS for Arch, Endeavour, and Fedora on three different devices.

interesting YES, I'm running pop!_OS / cosmic tonight for the first time. don't love it, don't hate it... certainly not as nice as my fedora 43 / gnome and not as smooth as openSUSE KDE Plasma, unless I find some niche it is especially good at I will probably delete it, and take another look at Mint as it's been a few years since last my Mint.

 

[LinuxFan58]

Besides getting notified for errors (I once got a message about propierty GPU driver) in Linux Mint, you can also install LOGCHECK

Logcheck scans the system logs every two hours for events. After you have installed Logcheck you need to manually configure it as root

Spoiler: Location of logcheck configuration file

Logcheck sends you an e-mal when something important is found in the logs. You can specify the notification level (choose workstation) and the subjects you want to be warned about (I choose only security alerts and incidents to prevent noise). The logcheck.conf contains explanation which I omitted in below example.

Spoiler: My settings as example

DATE="$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')"
INTRO=1
# options are workstation, server and paranoid, you must also enter your email adres
REPORTLEVEL="workstation"
SENDMAILTO="YOUR.EMAIL@addres.com"
MAILASATTACH=0
FQDN=1
SORTUNIQ=0
SUPPORT_CRACKING_IGNORE=0
RULEDIR="/etc/logcheck"
SYSLOGSUMMARY=0
# Controls Subject: lines on logcheck reports, to prevent noise don't eneable eventssubject
ATTACKSUBJECT="Security Alerts"
SECURITYSUBJECT="Security Events"
#EVENTSSUBJECT="System Events"
ADDTAG="no"
# default is to let mime-construct pick an appropriate encoding, but you can specify format here
#MIMEENCODING=
TMP="/tmp"

Logcheck acts as a simple no-noise HIDS in this setting. I have also set the email warming notification in my router when critical events occur (the level above errors, but under alerts and emergencies) this provides a simple and no-noise NIDS (on top of the Trend Micro Home free forever IPS and HTTP malware filter).

 

[Nunzio_77]

Install Kubuntu!!!
Is a very very beautiful distro of linux.

 

[lokamoka820]

Install Kubuntu!!!
Is a very very beautiful distro of linux.

Are you using LTS or non-LTS Kubuntu? Does the upgrade process run smoothly and without any errors?

 

[Nunzio_77]

Are you using LTS or non-LTS Kubuntu? Does the upgrade process run smoothly and without any errors?

I'm using version 25.10 (not LTS), and updates are smooth and trouble-free.
I'm waiting for the official 26.04 release, but I've had no issues upgrading from 25.04 to 25.10 on two of my laptops (one of them is about 20 years old).

 

[acyclovir]

I'm currently running Fedora 43 with LUKS encryption and Secure Boot enabled. I've successfully managed to sign the proprietary Nvidia drivers and VMware components using automated scripts. I also configured Yubikey authentication for both disk decryption and GDM login, with a password fallback in case it isn't inserted. Really happy with how Fedora is performing!

 

[lokamoka820]

I'm using version 25.10 (not LTS), and updates are smooth and trouble-free.
I'm waiting for the official 26.04 release, but I've had no issues upgrading from 25.04 to 25.10 on two of my laptops (one of them is about 20 years old).

I'm having trouble deciding between Kubuntu and TUXEDO OS right now. It is based on Ubuntu LTS without snaps and will ship the most recent KDE Plasma desktop and apps as they become available (semi-rolling). Additionally, as the developers clam, they fixed some issues on Ubuntu.

 

[LinuxFan58]

I'm having trouble deciding between Kubuntu and TUXEDO OS right now. It is based on Ubuntu LTS without snaps and will ship the most recent KDE Plasma desktop and apps as they become available (semi-rolling). Additionally, as the developers clam, they fixed some issues on Ubuntu.

I thought Tuxedo is optimzied for Tuxedo hardware, so will it run flawlessly on your PC?